The Amazon Appstore is an app store for the Android operating system, operated by Amazon.com. It was opened on March 22, 2011 and was made available in nearly 200 countries.[2] Developers are paid 70% of the list price of the app or in-app purchase.[3]

On September 28, 2011, Amazon unveiled a new tablet, the Kindle Fire.[4] This tablet, which is designed for media consumption in the Amazon ecosystem, relies solely on the Amazon Appstore for its marketplace, eschewing Google's Android Market (now called Google Play). Alongside the tablet was a new design for the Amazon Appstore designed to better integrate with the tablet's user interface.

The Amazon Appstore includes a "free app a day" feature.[5] Every day, an application, frequently a game, is offered for free. On the launch day, this game was Angry Birds Rio (Ad-Free), in itself a promotional game.[6] On The European launch day the free app was Angry Birds (Ad-Free). The Free App of the Day feature makes an exception to Amazon's 70% of list price term, giving the developer 0% of the list price during the feature day.[7]

The store's "Test Drive" feature allows users to try an application in their web browser by launching a virtual copy of Android in the Amazon EC2cloud for half an hour.[8]

In May 2013, Amazon introduced Amazon Coins as a form of payment on the store.

On June 18, 2014, BlackBerry announced an official relationship with Amazon, which includes the official access to Amazon Appstore in the BlackBerry 10.3 update.[9]

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In June 2014, Amazon's Appstore for Android had seen a lot of growth since June 2013. That growth has seen the free and paid app selection triple from 80,000 apps to more than 240,000.[10] When the store launched in March 2011 it had around 3,800 apps.

Shortly after the Amazon Appstore launch, the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) published an open letter expressing concerns that were primarily aimed at Amazon's distribution terms.[11][12][13] The main concerns about the conditions were that Appstore terms force developers to permanently lower their AppStore prices if ever they do promotions on other stores, and that Amazon could choose to lower the price of an application while deciding to reduce the developer's share without having to ask permission.

Following this address, Amazon clarified the Appstore developer agreement,[14] but this did not assuage the IGDA's concerns, which declared that "Amazon’s terms represent a threat to game developers".[15][16]

In July 2011, the Swedish developer Bithack pulled its Apparatus application from the Appstore and published an open letter explaining that the store was a "disaster" for indie developers.[17] The main problems related to the very slow review process, the absence of any means to filter unsupported devices, and that Amazon changed the price of the application without consulting the developer,[18] leading to the IGDA reiterating its warnings concerning Amazon's policy once again.[19]

Apple filed a lawsuit against Amazon for using a similar name to the Apple App Store.[20] Amazon claimed that the term was too generic to be trademarked, and asked the judge to dismiss the suit.[21] Apple responded to Amazon's attempted dismissal of the lawsuit by claiming that Amazon was tarnishing the trademark by using the name.[22] A federal judge denied Apple's request for a preliminary injunction, disagreeing with Amazon's claim that the term is generic, and citing that Apple had not established "a likelihood of confusion" with Amazon's services to obtain an injunction.[23] Apple changed its complaint after Amazon started advertising the Kindle Fire, now saying that Amazon is trying to confuse customers further by dropping the “for Android” part of “Amazon Appstore for Android.” In the amended complaint, Apple wrote that “Amazon’s use is also likely to lessen the goodwill associated with Apple’s App Store service and Apple products designed to utilize Apple’s App Store service by associating Apple’s App Store service with the inferior qualities of Amazon’s service.”[24]

In January 2013, Apple's claims were rejected by a US District judge, who argued that the company presented no evidence that Amazon had "[attempted] to mimic Apple’s site or advertising", or communicated that its service "possesses the characteristics and qualities that the public has come to expect from the Apple APP STORE and/or Apple products."[25] In July 2013, Apple dropped the case.[26]

^"Apparatus will be pulled from Amazon Appstore". bithack.se. 2011-07-04. Archived from the original on 5 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-15. If you are a small indie development team, or possibly even alone, don't bother with Amazon Appstore. Create a great app, publish it on Android Market, and provide great customer support. You will never succeed on Amazon Appstore without a big wallet, or at least an established reputation so that Amazon puts value behind their promises.